Matt. 21 | Will You Respond to the Truth?

From the time I was little, I grew up with a thirst for knowledge and truth. Nothing has changed; I still enjoy learning new things. I went to college in pursuit of knowledge and earned a degree and then spent most of my life working in commercial construction. I liked learning new skills, but working with an ever changing group of guys that were not believers had a drawback. Sometimes my coworkers would tell me about things that once I heard them I could not un-hear.Sometimes it was very disturbing.

Truth can be like that, too. Not that it is necessarily disturbing, but rather that once we hear truth and understand it as truth, we cannot unknow it. Truth changes us. Jesus is bringing those points home in Matthew 21.

The crowds surrounding Jerusalem and declared Jesus as the Son of David prophesied to come long ago. They exalted Him as the Messiah, the King of Kings. This enraged the scribes and priests of Jerusalem, they wanted Jesus to make the people stop and declare to them that He was not who they proclaimed. But Jesus basically told the scribes and priests that He would not stop them from declaring the truth.

Jesus went on to fulfill some of the prophecies of the Old Testament which further established the truth of His identity. This led the religious elders of thepeople to challenge Jesus’ authority. Jesus responded with two parables which declared to them that they were responsible for what they already knew and now denied.

We, as humans, like to play games with knowledge and truth that we don’t like. We like to pretend we don’t believe certain truths and will fight hard in our minds to find ways to dismantle it. The problem is, we can’t change what is absolute truth by choosing not to believe it. Gravity will pull you to the ground every time whether you believe in gravity or not.

God’s truth is unchangeable. Jesus is Messiah, King of Kings, and God. You can live in defiance of that truth, but it will come back to bite you hard, eternally hard. Or, you can em brace the truth and begin to grow in ways you never imagined, and be blessed eternally.

Our actions determine which option we chose. If we are obedient in our actions to our king, we have chosen truth. If we go on in our lives doing as we desire in defiance to Jesus, we have chosen to live a lie, and live in opposition to God.

So what have we chosen? If we have chosen to walk in the truth, the next question becomes, “Have we chosen complete truth?” Are there areas in our walk with Christ in which we are still in denial and defiance? It should not be. Those areas will squelch the Holy Spirit and cripple our growth in Christ. As a result of our sin, we will live in the mire. We can change that today by embracing the whole truth and asking for God’s mercy and grace. Do it today…

“Holy Father, open our eyes to see all of you, and all of ourselves. Reveal truth to us and give us a receiving heart that we may respond in obedience to your love for us. In Jesus’ name we pray.”